


Probably at a Ghost Party

by stars_disguised_as_candles



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Angst, Ben Hargreeves Needs A Hug, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Good Brother Diego Hargreeves, Hurt/Comfort, Klaus Hargreeves Deserves Better, Klaus Hargreeves Needs A Hug, Light Angst, Whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-16
Updated: 2019-04-16
Packaged: 2020-01-15 00:27:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,493
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18487543
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stars_disguised_as_candles/pseuds/stars_disguised_as_candles
Summary: Ben disappears after an argument with Klaus, who is left feeling hurt, guilty and empty. When he arrives home slightly injured, Diego is there to patch him up, regardless of how reluctant he is and how annoying he can be.





	Probably at a Ghost Party

Klaus walked up the stairs, not dragging his feet, not leaping up two step at a time. He just walked. His hand slid across the bannister, doing nothing to support him but ready to stop himself from falling nonetheless.

He felt… empty. It was an odd feeling and it was new to him. He almost felt scared by it but realistically he knew he was only thinking that because he knew it was what he should be feeling. He probably would be feeling scared if he wasn’t so emotionally numb.

As he got to the top of the stairs he turned to look down the corridor, noting the closed doors as the others slept soundly. 

Right, because it’s night time. He nodded to his own thoughts slightly walking down the corridor to his own room looking into Diego’s as he got to the end. The door was open and the light was on but it was empty. 

He stepped into his room, leaving the lights off and closed the door, moving to sit on his bed. Slowly, he traced his fingers against the cut of his cheek, quickly pulling them away from the stinging touch and thought back, recounting the events of the evening.

The night started out fairly uneventful. Sure, he had gotten attacked by an old dealer trying to get some money that he claimed Klaus owed him. He had left there to go to the nearest club, only to be denied entry because he looked too unpresentable. Then he’d hardly gotten far before he got yelled at an spat on by some homophobic dickheads who thought he shouldn’t be wearing a skirt or eyeliner.

So he supposed that it was slightly eventful but honestly it wasn’t like it was particularly different from how most other nights went. 

The issue was when Ben had tried to put a comforting hand on his shoulder and asked him if he would please just go home. His hand fell straight through and he looked up at Klaus with such a shocked and hurt look in his eyes that Klaus couldn’t speak.

‘All I wanted was for you to go home. I just wanted you to be safe and not fall back into old habits,’ he said, his voice steady but laced with anger. ‘And here you are, too drunk to touch me.’

‘Ben,’ he tried but his brother shook his head, holding his hand up to stop him from talking.

‘I know it’s hard Klaus but I just wanted you to try,’ he continued. Klaus knew what he was talking about. It was different now. He had to try for Ben; they knew he could materialise him now, he couldn’t give that up. He had to try for Dave too. He just wanted to see him.

Yet, it had been months since the apocalypse was averted and he couldn’t feel the slightest connection to him. He couldn’t keep going with no reward.

‘I just wanted to see him,’ he whispered. Ben nodded, processing what he was saying and honestly he understood why Klaus couldn’t stay sober. He knew that he had tried but…

‘And I just wanted to be able to talk to someone, Klaus,’ he cried. ‘You don’t know what it’s like to be unable to touch someone or speak to someone or just in some way have the most minor interaction with another person. All I have had is these little conversations with you and then one day I could touch you.’

Klaus was unable to speak, to reply in any way. He just stared at Ben as he poured out the emotions he had held in for years. Then what felt like less than half a second later, Ben was gone.

And Klaus felt empty. 

He stood up again, making his way to the door so he can wash the blood off his face. As he turned the door handle he heard someone outside his door.  _ Diego _ .

Klaus stood, unmoving, waiting for him to retreat to his room so he could leave in peace. He heard the door to Diego’s bedroom close, followed by silence and sighed opening the door, only to be met with his brother standing facing him, staring him down.

‘What?’ he snapped at Diego, who raised an eyebrow at the malicious tone but otherwise did nothing. Klaus sighed rolling his eyes, pasting on a smile and laughing. ‘As much as I love a man to turn up on my doorstep all dark eyed and mysterious, I have to get to the bathroom.’

‘Klaus,’ Diego warned and in response he simply looked innocently at his brother and smiled.

‘Yes darling?’ he smirking as Diego rolled his eyes fondly at his brothers stupidity.

‘Care to share why you got in at 3 am with blood dried on half your face?’ Diego questioned and Klaus groaned trying to push Diego back so he could get out of the room, tired of having to deal with this.

‘No,’ he replied, frowning as his brother refused to budge. ‘Care to share why you won’t move out of my way?’

‘Sure, I want to know what’s going on,’ he replied with a forced, slightly annoyed smile. Klaus scoffed in response. Since when did he care? ‘Seriously Klaus, you’ve been sober for months and all of a sudden you come in looking half dead and in a worse mood than when the apocalypse was imminent.’

Klaus groaned and backed away, grabbing the door to slam in Diego’s face, only to have his brother grab it and walk into his room and hoist him over his shoulder in a fireman’s lift. In protest, Klaus kicked his legs in the air and hit his hands against Diego’s back while his brother carried him away.

‘Put me down,’ he hissed and Diego let out a huff of laughter, clearly amused by his brother’s annoyance.

‘In the future, maybe don’t act like a child and just answer my question,’ he suggested and Klaus lifted his head to try and see where his brother was taking him but in the dark and as he was currently upside down, it was difficult to distinguish where they were. Eventually he gave up and let his brother just carry him around and it wasn’t long until they arrived at a room and Diego turned on the lights.

He dropped Klaus down into a seat, which he soon realised was a bed, and as he looked around he recognised the infirmary and groaned. Whenever Klaus got  _ sick _ when they were kids, Diego always promised not to take him to the infirmary. They’d just sit in the bathroom while Diego made sure he didn’t choke on his own puke.

‘Why are we here?’ he asks, while Diego shuts the door and goes to grab some supplies out of the cupboards. Weirdly Klaus had hoped that their agreement would still stand but then again he didn’t even think Diego would care enough to pay him any attention should he be sick or injured now.

His brother looked at him like he was stupid as he came back over with what he had collected, placing it on the table next to Klaus. ‘Have you seen yourself Klaus, you know you’re bleeding right?’ he asked, genuinely confused by his brother’s question.

‘Well yeah, I  _ was _ there when it happened. Believe it or not,’ he joked and Diego looked at him as if that should give him his answer. 

‘You’re not still scared of the infirmary are you?’ he teased before adding, ‘I figured that was just because you didn’t want Dad to find out.’

Klaus grinned at him, forgetting momentarily how awful he felt. ‘There’s that. Also there tends to be more ghosts but we’re actually good now. Probably off at some ghost party,’ he assured, trying not to think about how Ben had left him too. ‘But I meant more because it’s not some super serious injury. Just a little cut, you’re not obliged to stay.’

Regardless, Diego wet a washcloth in a bowl of warm water and wiped away the blood that had dried on Klaus’ face. He ignored the comment basically telling him to leave and instead circled back to the injury itself. ‘What caused your super  _ un _ serious injury then?’ he asked curiously.

Klaus waited for him to move the cloth away and rinse it in the water before replying. ‘An old dealer,’ he said, momentarily pausing before elaborating, ‘He said I owed him money, which I’m pretty sure I didn’t but whatever. Tried to mug me but jokes on him I had no money.’

Diego moved the cloth back over Klaus’ face, unsure of how to ask what he wanted to ask. ‘Funny coincidence, running into an old dealer,’ he tried, moving the cloth away and dumping it in the bowl, having cleaned the majority of blood off his face.

‘Mhmm, funny,’ he smirked at his brother, waiting for the question. He wasn’t going to make this easy for him.

Diego glared at Klaus, his hand dropping onto the table loudly. ‘Stop fucking with me Klaus, did you go to buy drugs?’ he asked directly. He wanted to be nice and understanding but he was losing his temper and he couldn’t deal with Klaus joking about it.

The directness of the question threw Klaus a little but he quickly recovered rolling his eyes. ‘No Diego, he just tracked me down or something. I am completely sober… Aside from the alcohol but that shouldn’t count,’ he murmured at the end, more to himself than to his brother.

Diego picked up a cotton bud, dabbing it in disinfectant and grabbing Klaus’ face to stop him from moving. ‘Alcohol counts too,’ he begun but stopped when Klaus hissed at the disinfectant on the cut. 

‘You can save the disappointed brother speech, Ben said it all already,’ he said, his voice dulled.

Diego raised an eyebrow at that and continued to roll the cotton bud over the cut. ‘Is he here?’ he asked, hopefully and relieved that his brother always had someone watching out for him. Not that that would stop him from trying to mend their broken relationship.

‘No,’ he replied, barely loud enough to hear. He sounded annoyed by the fact, almost like a child in a huff, and yet he also sounded sad and tired. Diego said nothing, waiting for him to elaborate but Klaus just sat there wincing at the stinging feeling.

Diego sighed, moving away and letting his head go before asking, ‘Why not?’

Klaus looked at him silently and shrugged. He tried to seem nonchalant about it but in reality it just looked pained. ‘Probably at that ghost party,’ he laughed but Diego just stared at him, waiting for a serious reply. ‘Chill out, Diego. He’ll be fine.’

Diego furrowed his eyebrows at his brother’s response and Klaus almost looked scared momentarily.

‘What?’ he questioned, unsure of what he missed.

‘I’m not worried about Ben, he’s the one with some common sense,’ Diego said, waiting again for a response from his brother. When he just sat there looking slightly offended but also a little amused by the statement he continued, ‘Why did he go?’

Klaus groaned, hating talking about this. He just wanted to leave and go to bed but Diego picked up some tape to seal the wound and he knew he wasn’t getting away just yet. ‘We got into an argument, it happens,’ he said and Diego nodded indicating for him to continue. ‘What? I can’t really say more than that. That is literally all that happened.’

Diego began to tape the wound together, getting annoyed when Klaus kept fidgeting but trying to hold his temper anyway. ‘Does he leave a lot?’ he asked, curiously and Klaus didn’t answer. ‘Klaus,’ he prompted and his brother groaned again in response.

‘I don’t know, Diego. Sometimes. Not for long. Not that it’s been long, it’s just-’ he cut himself off aware that he was rambling. 

‘He’ll be back, Klaus,’ Diego reassured, moving away, having finished cleaning up the cut. ‘He wouldn’t stick around for over a decade only to leave over one little argument.’

Klaus nodded lightly, processing the words. ‘I guess,’ he started, hesitant of sharing with Diego but the conversation seemed to be going well so far. ‘But he was so upset. He could finally touch me, we were so close to making him real again and then he could speak to you and touch you and then I went and got drunk and… I ruined it all.’

The sudden outburst stunned Diego, especially after Klaus was so reluctant to talk in the first place. ‘So why did you get drunk?’ he asked, worried that it sounded too accusing or that Klaus would take it the wrong way.

He was fine though he just frowned at his brother and replied quietly, ‘I couldn’t see Dave.’ Diego didn’t know too much about the man Klaus had fallen in love with when he time travelled but he could tell he really cared about him. Quickly, Klaus seemed to panic and added, ‘I know it’s really selfish because I should be able to stay sober for Ben and it’s my own fau-’

Diego put his hand over Klaus’ mouth to stop him from talking. ‘I get it,’ he said, moving his hand away. ‘I get that you would feel disappointed that you can’t see him.’

Klaus sat there silently, looking at the floor for a while before managing a small, ‘Thank you.’

Diego smiled and stepped back, allowing Klaus space to get up. ‘You should get some rest,’ he ordered but Klaus didn’t move and he raised an eyebrow at him. ‘Don’t tell me I have to carry you back down?’

Klaus snorted a laugh and hopped off the bed shaking his head. ‘That’s alright, Prince Charming, I’ve got this.’

They walked back to their rooms quietly and Klaus waved jokingly to Diego when he got to his room, closing the door and diving onto the bed. He groaned as he hit the bed, having forgotten the beating he got earlier and rolled onto his back.

‘That was pretty dumb.’

Klaus grinned at the voice and turned to face Ben, rolling again onto his side to face him. ‘I am pretty and I am dumb,’ he replied staring at his brother who looked a little annoyed still but also amused. ‘I’m sorry, Ben,’ he said sadly, reaching out his hand to his brother and letting it drop when he made no move to hold it.

‘I get it,’ he said, echoing Diego’s words earlier. They stayed silent for a while after that, until eventually Klaus fell asleep, unable to keep himself awake much longer.

Ben sighed and reached out and placed his hand over his brother’s relief washing through his as he made contact with him. He smiled and waited, watching Klaus sleep surprisingly calmly, at least for a few hours.

**Author's Note:**

> Might do a sequel of Klaus conjuring Dave and him meeting protective big brother Diego. Or one of Klaus materialising Ben that would be fun, I love my trio.
> 
> @246umbrellaboys on tumblr if you'd like to request anything


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